Four Honolulu police officers accused of chasing a vehicle with six Maili Beach Park partygoers in September 2021 entered not-guilty pleas Thursday to charges that they caused a crash, fled the scene and conspired to cover it up.

Officer Joshua J.S. Nahulu, 37, entered a plea of not guilty to a felony charge of causing death or serious bodily injury for his alleged involvement in the crash near the corner of Farrington Highway and Orange Street, which left the driver of a white four-door Honda Civic with a traumatic brain injury.

Nahulu faces up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted of the Class B felony. His attorney, Richard Sing, declined comment.

Officers Erik X.K. Smith, 25, Jake R.T. Bartolome, 35, and Robert G. Lewis III, 32, pleaded not guilty to hindering prosecution in the first degree, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Smith, Barto­lome and Lewis also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit hindering prosecution in the first degree, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

A “drivers license stopper is active” for Nahulu, according to state court records.

Nahulu is free on $10,000 bail secured by bond, and Smith, Bartolome and Lewis are free on $5,000 bail ahead of their trial.

The officers are scheduled to stand trial May 22 before Judge Paul B.K. Wong. All four are on restricted duty by order of the police chief.

Smith’s attorney, Doris Lum, and Lewis’ attorney, Benjamin Ignacio, declined comment after their clients’ arraignment and plea Thursday morning before Circuit Judge Christine E. Kuriyama.

“We are very eager to review all the evidence because there are still many outstanding questions that need to be addressed,” Bartolome’s attorney, Pedric T. Arrisgado, told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser in a statement.

Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm said in a statement that the nearly 18 months between the crash and criminal charges allowed prosecutors to carefully conduct their own investigation in addition to the internal efforts by HPD investigators.

“Traffic collision cases involving injury and/or death are complicated and frequently take a long time to investigate and charge. In this case we did our own investigation in addition to the work HPD did,” said Alm in a statement. “Before we charge someone we must be convinced we can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt with admissible evidence. It is more important to do this right than to do this quickly.”

At about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 12, 2021, Nahulu, Smith, Barto­lome and Lewis were dispatched to a noise complaint about a party in Maili Beach Park, according to court documents filed March 16. The Honda was driven out of the parking lot, and Nahulu, Smith and Bartolome allegedly followed it in an unannounced pursuit.

Nahulu was allegedly “nearest the sedan when it left the highway and crashed onto private property” at about 3:45 a.m., injuring all six occupants, some critically, when they were ejected from the Civic after it crashed through a yard and over a concrete wall.

Nahulu, Smith and Barto­lome allegedly drove past the scene of the crash, then pretended to know nothing about it when a police dispatcher sent them back to the scene. The three officers allegedly met up in the driveway of Waianae Intermediate School before the 911 dispatcher sent them to the scene of the crash, according to the complaint.

Body-worn camera footage from Smith, Bartolome and Lewis responding to the crash scene allegedly shows them acting as if they had “no prior knowledge of the facts that gave rise to the collision.”

Lewis also met with Smith and Bartolome before responding to the scene of the crash and then allegedly behaved as if he had no knowledge of the incident.

Smith, Bartolome and Lewis allegedly submitted false reports that didn’t mention they were chasing the car that crashed. Nahulu is alleged to have left the scene of the accident without stopping and rendering aid as required by law.

Attorneys in a lawsuit against the city allege that Nahulu had a long-standing beef with Jonaven Perkins-­Sinapati, the driver of the car. Perkins-­Sinapati suffered brain damage, was on life support after the crash and is pursuing a civil action against the officers and the city.

Four other passengers who sustained injuries — ages 17, 18, 20 and 21 at the time of the crash — recently settled with the city for $4.5 million.

Another passenger that morning whose family is suing the officers and the city is Dayton Gouveia, 14 at the time. He was paralyzed for months from the neck down, and doctors estimate the health care serv­ices he will need throughout his life will cost about $7 million.

Gouveia is coping with depression and has permanent nerve damage and injuries to his neck and back that hinder his mobility and balance. He also struggles with problems related to internal functions, his family’s attorney has said.